What is the difference between delete and format?

Answer 1

Formatting prepares a drive to accept new data. This involves wiping the whole drive (or partition) and all the information on it.

Delete, just removes the index to where a particular file was actually stored on the disk. It's a bit like, instead of tearing a page out of a book, you just cross out the index that refers to that page. That's how Undelete programs can find the file again.

The old data however, can be overwritten, by new stuff being stored and thus losing the data forever.

Answer 2

Delete Erases Certain Files! Format Erases Everything on a Drive and delete command gives you a chance to undelete from recycle bin while format command does not give u any chance it can be recovered with certain softwares; just like__ powerdatarecovery and recuva and all other

Answer 3

When a computer file is deleted, references to its location are removed from the computer's directory and indexes. The content of the file may remain on the disk. When a computer disk is formatted, a new file index is created and all of the sections of the disk are reset to their base state, removing all content from the disk.